Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

8-1-2014

Abstract

Rain gauge data in developing countries are usually very limited, which constrains most of the hydrological modelling applications. The satellite based rainfall estimates could be a promising choice and hence can be used as a surrogate to ground-based rainfall. However, the usefulness of these products needs to be evaluated for hydrological application such as for pesticide predictions. The present study compares the contaminant transport simulation with the utilization of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall compared with rain gauge data from the field site. Through this study, transport trends of the pesticide, Thiram, a dithiocarbamate, at different time and depth in the fields under real field conditions for the wheat crop were compared to the numerical simulations using HYDRUS- 1D with the input of daily rainfall from the TRMM. The daily rainfall from TRMM has been utilized to simulate the pesticide concentration up to 60 cm vertical soil profile with the intervals of 15 cm. The simulated soil moisture content using ground based rainfall and TRMM derived rainfall measurements indicate an agreeable goodness of fit between the both. The overall analysis reveals that TRMM rainfall is promising for soil pesticide prediction in absence of ground based measurements of soil pesticide. Further, comparison of the model to measured field data of pesticides movement indicates that the modelling approach can provide reliable and useful estimates of the mass flux of water and non-volatile pesticide in vadose zone. Thus, the satellite-based rainfall products could also be useful for policy makers and planners while controlling inappropriate pesticide application under saturated and deficit soil moisture conditions.

Comments

Session R31, Hydrologic Modeling: Catchment and Runoff Computations

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